Stolen Childhood: Slave Youth in Nineteenth-Century America

ÊKing provides a jarring snapshot of children living in bondage. This compellingly written work is a testament to the strength and resilience of the children and their parents.Ë ÐKathleen Hughes, Booklist
ÊStolen Childhood is a wonderful book with manifold strengths of research and analysis.Ë ÐNell Irvin Painter, The Journal of Southwest Georgia History
ÊShe [King] takes an enormous step toward filling some of the voids in the literature of slavery. . . .Ë ÐAdele Logan Alexander, Washington Post Book World
ÊWilma King has done a service in correcting a major problem in slave history. Her writing style gracefully conveys both the joys and the terrors of youth under slavery.Ë ÐDavid Libby, Southern Historian
ÊKingis deeply researched, well-written, passionate study places children and young adults at center stage in the North American slave experience.Ë ÐJ. D. Smith, Choice
ÊStolen Childhood is a welcome addition to the burgeoning literature on the slave experience in the United States.Ë ÐV. P. Franklin, History of Education Quarterly
ÊStolen ChildhoodË mines the major American archives in order to present the ways in which enslaved men and women created a semblance of family life and cultural heritage.Ë ÐMary Warner Marien, Christian Science Monitor
Wilma King argues that childhood was stolen from these childrenÐthey were forced into the workplace at an early age, subjected to arbitrary plantation authority and punishment, and were separated from family. King follows the slave childis experience through work, play and leisure, education, socialization, resistance to slavery, and the transition to freedom.